Thank you all for your suggestions. She is now 68, small framed and her 30/06 with 180 grain bullets that she has used since she was 30 is beginning to hurt her.
I think I will get a break, good ear protectors, and use the reduced recoil bullets. Has anyone actually used these bullets on a deer and if so what have been your results.

The reduced recoil loads work very well. I have made many reduced loads in almost all of the common calibers. If you reduce the bullet weight with the reduced speed, they are still very effective on game. I hunt with a 300 Black Out pushing a 125 Nosler or 125 Hornady SST at 2230 fps. At this speed, the bullet opens up to a perfect mushroom shape with good penetration.

In a 30-06, you can push a 125 grain about 2600 fps or a 150 grain about 2500 fps as a reduced recoil load. In an 8.5# rifle, the 125 grain reduced load has 8.06 ft/lbs of energy to the 19.54 ft/lbs of a standard 180 grain at 2800 fps. That's a 70% reduction!

Let me know if I can quote you anything. I can load any bullet from 110 grain to 150 grain as a reduced load. The 125 Nosler Ballistic tip or the 125 grain Hornady SST would be ideal.

But Chad...what about the brake?

I despise brakes.

However, she clearly falls under the Rule 3.08(F) "momma/wife/daughter who loves her rifle and wants to keep using it" exception.

Can't imagine the brake would be necessary with a good thick pad and reduced loads unless this is a super-lightweight.

A muzzle break reduces the recoil by taking the gas component of recoil out of the equation and the gasses hitting the front of the ports or front part of the break "pushing" the gun forward some. The larger the powder charge the more reduction the same break will have. Breaks with larger frontal surface will reduce recoil more (think artillery style breaks)

A recoil pad as alluded below does not reduce recoil but a good one does spread out the recoil over a longer period of time causing the shooter to feel that recoil has been reduced considerably. Good ones like Kick-ez and decelerator feels like about 50% reduction in the painful sharp recoil impulse.

Reduced recoil ammo, lighter bullets with less velocity and powder = less recoil

For what it is worth, I put a break on the 300UM and it kicks about like a .243 or less. My 11 year old cousin shot his first deer with it and my sister has shot numerous deer with it. Neither would have been able to handle the gun otherwise.

Sounds like you pretty much have your answer from the other posters though